I arrived the next morning promptly1 at the agreed hour and found my friend literally2 fuming3 withrage.
When he had dismissed an unhappy subordinate, I inquired delicately what had happened.
For a moment Hardcastle seemed unable to speak. Then he spluttered out: “Those damnedclocks!”
“The clocks again? What’s happened now?”
“One of them is missing.”
“Missing? Which one?”
“The leather travelling clock. The one with ‘Rosemary’ across the corner.”
I whistled.
“That seems very extraordinary. How did it come about?”
“The damned fools—I’m one of them really, I suppose—” (Dick was a very honest man) “—One’s got to remember to cross every t and dot every i or things go wrong. Well, the clocks werethere all right yesterday in the sitting room. I got Miss Pebmarsh to feel them all to see if they feltfamiliar. She couldn’t help. Then they came to remove the body.”
“Yes?”
“I went out to the gate to supervise, then I came back to the house, spoke4 to Miss Pebmarsh whowas in the kitchen, and said I must take the clocks away and would give her a receipt for them.”
“I remember. I heard you.”
“Then I told the girl I’d send her home in one of our cars, and I asked you to see her into it.”
“Yes.”
“I gave Miss Pebmarsh the receipt though she said it wasn’t necessary since the clocks weren’thers. Then I joined you. I told Edwards I wanted the clocks in the sitting room packed up carefullyand brought here. All of them except the cuckoo clock and, of course, the grandfather. And that’swhere I went wrong. I should have said, quite definitely, four clocks. Edwards says he went in atonce and did as I told him. He insists there were only three clocks other than the two fixtures5.”
“That doesn’t give much time,” I said. “It means—”
“The Pebmarsh woman could have done it. She could have picked up the clock after I left theroom and gone straight to the kitchen with it.”
“True enough. But why?”
“We’ve got a lot to learn. Is there anybody else? Could the girl have done it?”
I reflected. “I don’t think so. I—” I stopped, remembering something.
“So she did,” said Hardcastle. “Go on. When was it?”
“We were just going out to the police car,” I said unhappily. “She’d left her gloves behind. Isaid, ‘I’ll get them for you’ and she said, ‘Oh, I know just where I must have dropped them. Idon’t mind going into that room now that the body’s gone’ and she ran back into the house. Butshe was only gone a minute—”
“Did she have her gloves on, or in her hand when she rejoined you?”
I hesitated. “Yes—yes, I think she did.”
“Obviously she didn’t,” said Hardcastle, “or you wouldn’t have hesitated.”
“She probably stuffed them in her bag.”
“The trouble is,” said Hardcastle in an accusing manner, “you’ve fallen for that girl.”
“Don’t be idiotic,” I defended myself vigorously. “I saw her for the first time yesterdayafternoon, and it wasn’t exactly what you’d call a romantic introduction.”
“I’m not so sure of that,” said Hardcastle. “It isn’t every day that young men have girls fallinginto their arms screaming for help in the approved Victorian fashion. Makes a man feel a hero anda gallant6 protector. Only you’ve got to stop protecting her. That’s all. So far as you know, that girlmay be up to the neck in this murder business.”
“Are you saying that this slip of a girl stuck a knife into a man, hid it somewhere so carefullythat none of your sleuths could find it, then deliberately7 rushed out of the house and did ascreaming act all over me?”
“You’d be surprised at what I’ve seen in my time,” said Hardcastle darkly.
“Don’t you realize,” I demanded, indignantly, “that my life has been full of beautiful spies ofevery nationality? All of them with vital statistics that would make an American private eye forgetall about the shot of rye in his collar drawer. I’m immune to all female allurements8.”
“Everybody meets his Waterloo in the end,” said Hardcastle. “It all depends on the type. SheilaWebb seems to be your type.”
“Anyway, I can’t see why you’re so set on fastening it on her.”
Hardcastle sighed.
“I’m not fastening it on her — but I’ve got to start somewhere. The body was found inPebmarsh’s house. That involves her. The body was found by the Webb girl—I don’t need to tellyou how often the first person to find a dead body is the same as the person who last saw himalive. Until more facts turn up, those two remain in the picture.”
“When I went into that room at just after three o’clock, the body had been dead at least half anhour, probably longer. How about that?”
“Sheila Webb had her lunch hour from 1:30 to 2:30.”
I looked at him in exasperation9.
“What have you found out about Curry10?”
Hardcastle said with unexpected bitterness: “Nothing!”
“What do you mean—nothing?”
“Just that he doesn’t exist—there’s no such person.”
“What do the Metropolis11 Insurance Company say?”
“They’ve nothing to say either, because there’s no such thing. The Metropolis and ProvincialInsurance Company doesn’t exist. As far as Mr. Curry from Denvers Street goes, there’s no Mr.
Curry, no Denvers Street, Number 7 or any other number.”
“Interesting,” I said. “You mean he just had some bogus cards printed with a bogus name,address and insurance company?”
“Presumably.”
“What is the big idea, do you think?”
Hardcastle shrugged12 his shoulders.
“At the moment it’s guesswork. Perhaps he collected bogus premiums13. Perhaps it was a way ofintroducing himself into houses and working some confidence trick. He may have been a swindleror a confidence trickster or a picker-up of unconsidered trifles or a private inquiry14 agent. We justdon’t know.”
“But you’ll find out.”
“Oh, yes, we’ll know in the end. We sent up his fingerprints15 to see if he’s got a record of anykind. If he has it’ll be a big step on the way. If he hasn’t, it’ll be rather more difficult.”
“A private dick,” I said thoughtfully. “I rather like that. It opens up—possibilities.”
“Possibilities are all we’ve got so far.”
“When’s the inquest?”
“Day after tomorrow. Purely16 formal and an adjournment17.”
“What’s the medical evidence?”
“Oh, stabbed with a sharp instrument. Something like a kitchen vegetable knife.”
“That rather lets out Miss Pebmarsh, doesn’t it?” I said thoughtfully. “A blind woman wouldhardly be able to stab a man. She really is blind, I suppose?”
“Oh, yes, she’s blind. We checked up. And she’s exactly what she says she is. She was a teacherof mathematics in a North Country school—lost her sight about sixteen years ago—took uptraining in Braille, etc., and finally got a post with the Aaronberg Institute here.”
“She could be mental, I suppose?”
“With a fixation on clocks and insurance agents?”
“It really is all too fantastic for words.” I couldn’t help speaking with some enthusiasm. “LikeAriadne Oliver in her worst moments, or the late Garry Gregson at the top of his form—”
“Go on—enjoy yourself. You’re not the wretched D.I. in charge. You haven’t got to satisfy asuperintendent or a chief constable18 and all the rest of it.”
“Oh well! Perhaps we’ll get something useful out of the neighbours.”
“I doubt it,” said Hardcastle bitterly. “If that man was stabbed in the front garden and twomasked men carried him into the house—nobody would have looked out of the window or seenanything. This isn’t a village, worse luck. Wilbraham Crescent is a genteel residential19 road. Byone o’clock, daily women who might have seen something have gone home. There’s not even apram being wheeled along—”
“No elderly invalid20 who sits all day by the window?”
“That’s what we want—but that’s not what we’ve got.”
“What about numbers 18 and 20?”
“18 is occupied by Mr. Waterhouse, Managing Clerk to Gainsford and Swettenham, Solicitors,and his sister who spends her spare time managing him. All I know about 20 is that the womanwho lives there keeps about twenty cats. I don’t like cats—”
I told him that a policeman’s life was a hard one, and we started off.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
promptly
|
|
| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
fuming
|
|
| 愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
fixtures
|
|
| （房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
gallant
|
|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
allurements
|
|
| n.诱惑( allurement的名词复数 )；吸引；诱惑物；有诱惑力的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
exasperation
|
|
| n.愤慨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
curry
|
|
| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
metropolis
|
|
| n.首府；大城市 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
premiums
|
|
| n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
inquiry
|
|
| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
fingerprints
|
|
| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
adjournment
|
|
| 休会； 延期； 休会期； 休庭期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
constable
|
|
| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
residential
|
|
| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
invalid
|
|
| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |